Low-Spoiler Wizards and Warriors Walkthrough

There are several walkthroughs and spoiler pages for Wizards and Warriors out there, but none of them told
me what I wanted to know--namely, whether I'd missed any quests, puzzles, character interactions,
or other cool things to do on any of the maps, WITHOUT telling me the solution at the same time. Strategy
and riddles I can figure out on my own, but did Scanthril really have a hideout to the north somewhere, or
was I totally wasting my time looking?

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So I've written this Wizards and Warriors walkthrough myself--feel free to help out by
emailing me any cool character/questy bits I've missed! The
emphasis of my low-spoiler walkthroughs
is pointing gamers towards things they might not have tried, not divulging puzzle
solutions or giving step-by-step walkthrough instructions. There are plenty of other sites that do that
already... besides, some people don't want that stuff spoiled, they just want tips on where to look
for more things to do. So I've been vague where possible, trying to include only the starting point for
each quest so as to let you work through the rest of it on your own, and I haven't indicated every fight
or treasure source. If you want a more explicit hint, please check out my Links page, where several good
Wizards and Warriors walkthroughs and messageboards can be found.

Wizards and Warriors gives the illusion of open-ended exploration in the Might and Magic or Wizardry tradition, but in fact, the game is extremely linear.
The map areas are connected by pinch points, and you cannot pass to a new location without solving each quest in order. (You kind of have to wonder how
this world keeps functioning if it's impossible to travel from one city to another without first giving a unique quest item to a dragon who eats you if you
don't present it, but I digress.)

There is one choice you get to make at the very beginning of the game, though: there are two areas that can be explored from Valeia, one accessed
from the east exit (labeled "to Old Graveyard") and one from the west exit (labeled "to Nymph Lake.") It does not matter which order you explore those two
areas in; you'll need to do both before you can pass your next pinch point (the Oracle Cave, which remains sealed until you recover the first big
quest item.)

If you can't get out the "Old Graveyard" gate to the far right of the city, by the way,
go to this page and follow the
instructions for solving the "Can't Enter Buildings Or Go Through Gates Bug." You don't need to get through that gate, since there's a path around
Valeia, but there are also two new buildings in town that you'll be able to get quests in if you fix the bug, so don't put it off.

Towns in Wizards and Warriors are dull places; all you can do is select a building to enter and do your shopping and guild affairs.
It is impossible to talk to Gareth again.
There are no quests or useful clues within the city, but you can accept quests from any guild one or more of your characters belongs to, and
also from the town hall. You will have to do them in order--each of these buildings has three quests to offer, but until you have finished
the first quest in any building, you will not be assigned the next. You always have to accept a guild quest once for every character
who belongs to that guild (since you get six characters, duplication is unavoidable even if you never change your characters' classes, and if
you do, you can wind up with all six characters having to listen to and accept the same quest if they all want credit for it.) You can find the list
of all guild quests and class advancement quests that can be accepted in Valeia at my
Wizards & Warriors Quest List.

1) You will encounter a hissing green lizard man in a robe almost as soon as you leave this exit, who will engage you in conversation.
You get 50 XP for telling him Gareth is in there or nothing for refusing to tell him this, but there's no way to attack him or warn anyone about
his presence (not even if you run back to town ahead of the scaly guy.) You can, however, learn more about him by asking for news at the
bar and the town hall once you've encountered him, and you will get a chance to cross paths with him again near the end of the game.

2) Exploring around the south of this area, you can find a group of thieves who don't attack your party. If you talk courteously with their
leader Gorthius you can get a quest, Deliver the Lockpicks. After this
encounter and its inevitable aftermath, you can consult at the bar in Valeia for a clue if you like.

3) Further along the path you can encounter a Stout (dwarf) named Bilbump who will give you a quest,
Rat Pie.

4) Once you've cleared the graveyard, be sure your party is well healed and equipped before heading into the crypt.
All dungeons in this game work on an awkward "airlock" sort of mechanism, whereby you pull a lever hidden somewhere
near the entrance, the door into the dungeon opens, and the door leading back to the main map simultaneously seals.
To get back out of the dungeon, just pull the lever again, and the doors will reverse.

This is a much longer dungeon than it looks like it's going to be. You'll probably need to haul ass in and out of this one two or three
times just to schlep your loot. Save before messing with any
elevators, because they can crush you if you don't move just right. If you seem to be at a dead end, make sure you've examined all your objects closely,
because one of them has a clue inscribed on it that you need to use a special "read" option to learn. (You don't want to know how many circuits of the
dungeon I made before figuring that out. :P ) Save before opening coffins (though what gamer in his right mind doesn't already know that?)

The dungeon itself is linear and there is nothing down here you are in any danger of missing--if you find the Tomb of Nivius, you've found everything
the crypt has to offer. There are a few points where you have more than one choice of how to proceed, however:

1) When you reach the burning altars, you can only retrieve one of the Jindols (little voodoo dolls.) It isn't possible to get both. If you
take the Warrior Jindol, you'll end up taking the Path of the Warrior later on, and if you take the Wizard Jindol, you'll end up taking the Path of the Wizard
later. You can save just before using a crystal on either burning altar if you like, so that you can try both paths; I found them nearly identical,
so I wouldn't personally advise going out of your way to experience both. (I actually have no idea what the firepit puzzles in there were supposed to be
about. The mini-walkthrough that came with the game claims you can get through this by "walking over the central fire, then walking through it again
backwards and slipping around the perimeter of the room" or something like that. I found that utterly useless advice since the portcullis would close again
once I walked backwards across the central fire. Since you can't do the obvious and split the party in half, what I did was carry a treasure chest into the room
and run at the portcullis with it. Since things you carry stick out a full pace ahead of you, I was able to jam it in the portcullis and carry on. I still don't
know how this puzzle was 'supposed' to be solved, though.)

2) When you meet Scabban, he'll have a long conversation tree with you like any other NPC. It's clear he's deranged, but he won't attack you. If you say
'goodbye' he disappears, but if you force an attack on him instead you can reap his XP. You get the same reaction from the Wizard's Guild later regardless.

3) It's possible to reject Nivius' Oath, but it's impossible to get his signet ring until you agree to it and it's impossible to travel to Ishad N'ha without the
signet ring, so you eventually have no choice but to agree to the oath if you want to finish the game. I found it most entertaining to agree to the oath before Nivius
even told you what it entailed, personally. He's appropriately incredulous if you do. (-:

1) If you follow the signs all the way to Nymph Lake, you will reach a small boat-launching dock. A hyperkinetic toad-man runs up and down the banks of
the lake here. This is Mekdawa, who you need for a Priests' Guild quest, and his strange AI behavior is evidently just a bug. You also need to talk to him
before the Toad Shaman will assign you his quest later on.

2) Nearby is a windmill with a breathy girl named Kirielle hanging around outside it. Kirielle has a quest for you,
Fetch The Necklace. *Save your game* before going
into the mill building. For one thing, the building features ladders, which, as I've explained, are very badly designed and hard to climb down safely. For another,
there's a turning millstone on the top floor near a chest, and if you get too close to the stone, it will crush and kill your entire party.
Finally, there's usually a spider hanging around in the basement, and if you've been sent on a Valeia town quest that involves killing someone, like
Mon the Skulz, this is often where he will spawn. None of this has anything to do with
the clueless Kirielle.

3) On the northwest shore is a house helpfully labelled "Gypsy Fortuneteller." Even though these gypsy satyrs have probably attacked you several times already
as wandering monsters, the ones in this house are friendly, so it's better not to go in with guns blazing. Harespia, the leader, will tell your fortune for a price;
she is also useful in one of the Valeia quests. You can either get the object you need by trading an item from the Serpent Temple for it, stealing it, or just killing her
and taking it. But going the trading route nets you more XP plus access to the loot in the basement that the barkeeper in Valeia alluded to.

4) To get to the Toad Village, you can't merely walk off towards the east (as Mekdawa implies), but rather go north or west until you find a river, then follow
that river all the way to the east until it ends at a lake with a few huts in the middle of it. This area really confused me at first, because there is a second lake, also
with a hut standing in the middle of it, that you can only reach by way of an unintuitively short underground passage from one of the huts in the first lake;
I also encountered a bug that caused me to phase into the main hut when I swam up to the floor from below, which left me completely disoriented and with no
idea how to get back out of the complex. The Toad Village is also an unexpectedly dangerous area, because all the levels are connected by ladders, which are
so badly implemented in this game that they can be deathtraps for low-level characters. Save before trying to back down one.

If you survive the ladders and the general disorientation, the Toad leader, Shinwiki, has a quest for you:Restore The Toadem. Just make sure that you go to the second lake (through the trapdoor
in front of Shinwiki), because otherwise you'll spend a lot of time wandering around the first lake area scratching your head, like I did. Once you've defeated the
evil in the grove, don't neglect to touch the toadem stool for a special reward (each character can do it once.)

5) From a fork off of the river leading to the Toad Village, you can find the Oracle Caves. The Oracles will not let you pass through to Ishad N'ha unless you have
Nivius' signet ring, so this is a plot-controlled pinch point.

Once you've done everything you can in the Valeia quadrant of the map, pass on to Ishad N'ha!